When the floor level served by an elevator system has a destination call panel, the elevator cars do not need floor call buttons intended for floor calls. Correspondingly, on a floor level that only has up call buttons or down call buttons floor call buttons are needed in the elevator cars so that an elevator passenger could give a floor call in the elevator car to destination floor he/she desires. As a result of the arrangement in question, on the floors which comprise up-down call buttons a passenger must give a floor call in the elevator car whereas on the other floors, which comprise destination call panels, he/she does not need to give a floor call in the elevator car which easily causes unnecessary uncertainty and confusion in the giving of calls and thus makes the arrival of the passenger at his/her destination more difficult.
Attempts have been made to solve the problem by, among other things, locking (passivating) the floor call buttons of a car panel when the elevator car is at floors that have a destination call panel. A problem in these prior-art solutions is, however, that because the floor call buttons of the car panel are visible, although they are locked, the floor call buttons of the car panel cause confusion amongst the passengers arriving in the elevator car from floor levels provided with destination call panels. The confusion arises from passengers being unsure of whether they should still press floor call button of the car panel even though they have indicated their destination floor by means of a destination call panel on a floor level. Since a locked floor call button does not react when pressed, it can cause even more confusion in a passenger if he/she presses a locked floor call button.
The same basic problem causing the confusion is also in those prior-art solutions in which the floor call buttons of the car panel are not locked when the elevator car is at floor levels provided with destination call panels. In this case some of the passengers can refrain from giving a destination call on a floor level, move into some elevator car that is stopping or has stopped at the floor level, and indicate their destination floor only by pressing a floor call button in the elevator car. As a consequence the optimal routing and allocation of calls of the elevators suffers, in which case the transport capacity of the elevator system, particularly in peak hours, can be reduced and some passengers who have given a destination call can even be forced to stay on a floor level because there is not room in the elevator car owing to the “surplus” passengers.